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A few weeks ago I talked about a machine that can mow about four times faster than a brushcutter. The machine is called the AM61A. I have high hopes that this machine will eventually replaced most of the brushcutters in use in Malaysia and perhaps even start the push for more local workers (since hopefully less number of workers employed, maybe salary can be raised?)

I am also interested in a machine that they are bringing in called the Rabbit Mower (don’t ask me why they named it that) which I feel will also be good for Malaysians involved in grass mowing for small areas, or not so small; I think football fields or local authorities or even golf courses with rough that has a lot of trees; why not use a small machine that cost one third of a big machine that can’t manouvre in tight areas?

Rabbit Mower in action.

They are also bringing a few other mowers too. I am really interested to see what a ‘Shuttle Mower’ is. I am really hoping they can bring in a battery operated mower for use in houses. I know there’s a market for that.

I’m sorry, did you think I meant a ‘party’ kind of party in the title? I actually meant a seminar and golf. But with me as one of the speakers, it might as well be a party right? No? Ok fine, with golf at Impian Golf and Country club; then its a party? No?! Good food? No? Ok. We’ll treat this as a serious matter then. Come on lah… when do I get to do any fun stuff?

The Malaysian Golf Association (MGA) through its Education Sub-Committee is bringing together the stakeholders of the Malaysian golf industry; the Golf Course Superintendents Association of Malaysia (GCSAM), Golf Club Managers Association of Malaysia (GCMAM), club owners and committees together in one place for a half-day seminar and a roundtable discussion to discuss any issues pertaining to the Malaysian golf industry.

I’ll be talking about the Five Mistakes on Greens, there are actually more than five of course, but I’d like to still keep some friends after the end of the talk. Don’t worry!!! I won’t mention any names of clubs or courses when I show the close up pictures of suffering greens. If you are curious which courses those pictures came from, after the talk, meet me privately and just slip some money into my palm when we shake hands. Maybe I’ll tell you, as long as you don’t tell anyone else: of course. We’ll keep it a secret. Hey, don’t judge me ok? I’m a consultant so my services are for sale to anyone with money to give.

GCSAM’s president Mr. Jack Cheong will be speaking about the transformation of Malaysian golf courses from Cowgrass to modern superdwarfs and his experience in RSGC. At least, I think he’s going to talk about that lah. He did tell me, but its almost 2am now and I’m almost 50 y.o. so I don’t really remember what he said. Tell you what, you come by that day and he sure will tell you what he’s going to tell you. Deal?

In any case, when was the last time you actually went out of your office and tell your boss you are going to learn some new things and meet new people for only RM50 or RM110?

Its on the 2nd March. Thats next week. I know, it’s late notice. I am actually typing this last week on the 18th but I decided that if I tell you back then, you could forget about it during the long holidays. So I set it to automatically post today because I thought I might as well tell you today so that you won’t forget. If you want to come it would mean you are a somebody at the club and I bet getting permission to attend a half-day event is a cinch right? In fact, you probably can give yourself permission? Right? I’ll be the first speaker at 9am (read: 9.15 at best) but do come on time.

The Malaysian Meteorological Department has issued a statement that the current hot and dry spell in Malaysia will last until end of March 2015.
That’s 30 over days away. Bearing in mind that some parts of Malaysia haven’t had rain since a couple of weeks ago, the question to ask is; do you have enough irrigation water to last for the next 30 days? Or maybe even longer?
It would be good to know early so that you may want to start rationing, look for other sources of water or perhaps look around for other alternatives to making your irrigation more effective and efficient. You know, wetting agent, better sprinklers or even an irrigation audit. I’ve heard of claims that a slight increase in Kalium (thats Potassium to you Americans) will help in retaining water but don’t quote me.

Do you find that the maintenance work your turf (football field, golf course, park, etc) keep clashing with major events, or that you have to apologize to a customer because he played on turf that is ‘less than perfect’? Do you become irritated when the turf maintenance guy asks for higher expenditure in one month and sometimes it is in the month with the lowest income? Do you understand why, everyone and their mother, knows that the months of Nov and December of every year is the rainy season but yet, after all this years, nothing has been done to prepare the turf so that minimal disease and damage happen? Have you ever asked, if everybody is aware of the date of the year’s main event (Club Championship, football final, concert season, school holidays etc) why can’t they prepare the turf to take the extra stress?

Question: do you have a turf maintenance calendar?

In the context of turf maintenance, there are a few maintenance works that fall under the category of ‘Cultural Practice’ that needs to be applied or performed at certain intervals. Of course, for most turf areas these works disrupt play or enjoyment of customers, clients and guests. At the same time, most golf courses, football fields, or parks cannot afford to be closed wholly for long periods of time.

The best way to overcome this problem is to schedule these works into periods of low activity for example; in between football seasons, during fasting month, major exams week etc. This way, the disruption occurs to the least number of customers, which can be easier to handle.

Other benefits of scheduling work for the whole year includes:

1. Peaking the performance of the playing field/golf course during the period when it will receive the most media or customer attention.

2. Knowing exactly the amount of interval between the maintenance activity; e.g. between aerations or dethatchings; and adjusting accordingly.

3. Informing important guests or big organizers of when to schedule (or reschedule) their event. In my experience, several organizers are grateful to be informed earlier and especially if we can help to point an alternate site for them.

4. Preparing the grass for the times when it is predicted to receive the most amount of stress. E.g. before the monsoon season, or before the grassed area is turned into a temporary car park for an annual sale or ‘buka puasa buffet’ or concert or lion dance etc.

5. Staggering the purchase of materials and equipment needed for one major work over many months will help in managing the cash-flow better and will help you spread the costs over the year.

6. Keeping staff employed effectively through most of the year.

How do you start?

Start by having two lists:

1. List of events for the year or probable time of the year for the events. This may include, school holidays, public holidays, wedding season, golf season etc.

2. List of maintenance work activities (cultural practices, liming, soil amendment etc). Basically any major work that will disrupt play. Forget regular fertilizing or irrigation or stuff like that that can be manouvered around play.

Also weather pattern for the past few years. Ok, you may ask: what pattern? Did I miss the global warming crisis? Stop making excuses and get a monthly bar chart of rain days or rainfall; at the very least, you can make educated guesses.

Next:

Simple sample of yearly schedule

Take one of your most important and biggest (messiest) work of the year and consider when you would have that.

Choose the time when traffic is lowest on your site but weather is tolerable. And mark the dates for your work.

Basing on the interval for the same work, set the dates for the next round (e.g. twice a year: six months later, 4x a year: 3 months later etc)

Then stagger the other works so that it is not too close to the main works as in no 2 and 3 above.

Its not that difficult is it? Well, who said turf maintenance was rocket science? Of course, if you’ve never done it before or if the turf maintenance guys don’t have the support of the event management or marketing or golf management guys/gals; they’ll never get it done and the result is finger pointing the whole year. I’ve seen it done and I’ve seen people lose their jobs too.

Of course its not the end of the story after you actually do the annual calendar. Then you do the monthly calendar. This is especially important to maintenance crews that have limited manpower and resources (tractor, machinery etc.) You plan your work so that you can have enough workers for your projects and enough projects for your workers.

Because of a tournament (in red ink) extra attention was given to the greens a week prior to the event. Of course lucky Mountan View had an experienced consultant (ahem) to guide them.

Now that is the easy but yet tricky part. At the same time it is important because this is the time when you should know the exact dates of tournaments, visits, etc so that you can plan your work.

Remember too that a schedule is not set in stone that it cannot be changed. But not having a schedule is as true as the cliche: “Failing to plan is like planning to fail”

I found a tee that was almost completely shaded by trees. I was told this has been the case for a few years.

In my experience, in most cases, the tee would have been in poor condition, but not this tee.
Upon closer inspection and after asking the Superintendent, I was told that the tee – in fact the golf course – was planted with Serangoon grass (I believe its Digitaria didactyla). This strengthens my belief about the shade tolerance of Serangoon. There is a bit of browning and scalping on the surface which I believe are due to Philippine grass (Zoysia tenuifolia?) planted there when they enlarged the tee.
Both grass are a lighter green in colour compared to Bermuda and Cowgrass.

On the left is Serangoon, on the right is Zoysia.

It is a pity that the only nursery I know of that sold Serangoon has replanted it with Bermuda and golf courses that has Serangoon greens are rumoured to be contemplating to change to other grasses. I hope it is not about following a trend. I also hope that, in this context, they think about their shade issues too.

Stripes, whether on a football field or a golf course fairway, are nice to look at. Some Superintendents/Groundsmen are quite creative and can create nice patterns. However, the danger of having one direction of stripe for years and the same mower every time we mow, is creating ruts where the tyres are.

Nice stripes from a simple tractor. But at least this is a light machine. Gambar hiasan.

For those not in the know; to get those nice stripes that you see on TV or at your local field/fairways/rough, the mower operator has to mow in the same place and at the same direction every time. The grass then bends in that particular direction and when the mower comes back on the ‘return’ trip, the grass will bend in the opposite direction. The effect of light reflecting on the bent grass are what creates the striping effect. Not really the cutting action per se, more likely the rollers behind the ‘knife’.

Its easier to do with some grass compared to others. For the grasses that are harder to create the stripes, the mower operators has to be disciplined and skilled enough to be able to repeat that task every time he/she mows. Some courses/fields can have a few directions to spread the wear and tear but in Malaysia, most clubs will have one one direction of mowing; from tee to green of fairway or on the football field, from one side of the field to the other i.e. left to right.

If you don’t spread out the wear and tear and keep on mowing in the same place/direction every time over many years and even during wet soil conditions – especially if you don’t aerate your fairways – what will happen is that the machine’s tyres will always be in the same location every time you mow and this will soon create ruts.

Maybe not my best artwork; but what I’m trying to show is a profile of ruts created by a machine’s tyres.

I recently advised one club to change the direction of their fairway stripes because it has been that since the beginning. I suggested a ‘diamond’ cut from two directions to create a checker board effect from a straight up and down striping as it is now. At least then there can be two set of places where the machine’s tyres can be placed and since that particular club mows its fairways twice a week, that means on one day it will mow from left to right and on the other; right to left.

When the owner came by a few weeks ago, he decided he preferred the old stripes and instructed the Superintendent to go back to the old stripes. The Superintendent were not able to give a proper explanation why we changed mowing direction and had no choice but to go back to the previous direction.

Sigh… I guess I should let it go, but the rainy season has just begun and I’m afraid the ruts will just get worse.

The CIMB Classic 2014 is back in KLGCC from the 27th of October to the 2nd of November. With it, the golf course maintenance volunteer program and seminar returns.With great speakers to fulfil your intellectual appetite, working (as a volunteer) at one of Asia’s best golf course to satisfy your curiosity and watching some of the world’s best golfers in action to gratify your golfing mind; you should stop reading now and go straight to the form below, print it out, fill it up and fax it in (don’t forget to make payment too ya?)

Still reading? Let me tell you more. The seminar is presented by the Golf Course Superintendents’ Association of Malaysia, some of the speakers include Dr. Thomas Nikolai, Bruce R. Williams CGCS, Paul Jansen, Glenn Wright, Glen Forsdike, Steve Wilson, Nigel Taylor and our own Nizam Othman! With experiences from academics, past-president of the GCSAA, an architect, a superintendent and various technical experts, we can expect only the best in theoretical knowledge from the seminar. Ok enough. No need to read anymore. The form is below.

STILLLL reading? The volunteer programme allows us to be on the ‘other’ side of the rope, not just touching but working in the bunkers and on the greens where the great golfers have walked and the spectators who pay a day’s salary (well someone’s day!) can only drool over. Imagine the stories you can tell your flightmate at your next game of golf. They ‘hear’ about the greens’ cutting height and mowing operation; YOU ‘see’, ‘touch’ and ‘help out’ with the whole thing! Can you imagine the look on their faces? Now quit reading and fill up the form.

Aiyoo… no work to do? Still want to read? No more Mr. Nice Guy from me: Lets admit it: there is a possibility (a small possibility) that you may end up being famous worldwide by screwing up the work on the greens that’s cut so low (you have to come and be a volunteer to find out how low) that the walk-behind operators have to control their breathing, so be advised that we will be watching you closely. KLGCC is one club where there are so many staff who are qualified, well-trained and experienced but they still asking for volunteers because they want to share the knowledge and the excitement of being part of a world-class golf event. So please stop reading now and fill up the form. And pay up…

Alamaaak. Still reading… This seminar (like any other seminar; I know) is also a place where we get to network and make new friends and learn new things. Ya right; more likely we look for our old friends and gossip about old things, don’t lie; but a great excuse anyway. However, if you really want to network, wait till you are a part of the team that meets up at 4.30am, walk an unfamiliar course in the dark, work on problems that you thought were small stuff but to the pros are big issues, then go back to the workshop with sore feet, tired hands, full bladder (cannot pee behind tree!) but satisfied heart and meet with like-minded people; then only you know what networking means. Now fill up that form lah. I have nothing more to say.

Really: Nothing. More. To. Say! Ok… maybe a sentence or two more. Last paragraph. You are not a golfer? Never mind, attend the seminar to learn about golf course maintenance and come early as volunteers to get some pointers. I don’t play and I attend, so at least they got one pretty face already. Join me.

This is for us to read. You can download this or the pdf format below this.

Contrary to popular belief, usually, the greens are the easiest problems for me to help with. Usually, the current superintendents know what to do and just need some encouragement or pointers. Even if they don’t know what to do, they’ll be eager to listen and follow. Plus if it came to the stage that my help is needed, that usually means the club are willing to spend money and sacrifice time to make things better. Maybe occasionally some major replanting are needed but these aren’t often.

Sometimes it’s not about making things better too, but just to redraw the lines, clarify some stuff; usually about green speed. You know some clubs just chase after that extra six inches of speed by cutting low and rolling hard.

So give it three months or at worst a year, the greens would improve and then what?

Thats when I get to do what to me is the harder part; to change what most clubs and staff have already been used to or did not put as priority.

Honestly, I really did not think that the small things are the difficult things. The cleanliness by the buggy path, the paint at the halfway huts. The landscaping at the starter huts. The sand bins. The painting of the tee markers. The flag pins. The kerb edges etc.

Kerbs are visible. A little effort in maintaining it goes a long way.

In the beginning of the contract the boss and even the owner would want to know what my recommendations are or at least have a meal with me. When the greens are better I am usually left with just the superintendent. Not that its bad, but without having the boss’ ear, it is a little harder to make changes.

Some days, I think that not doing the improvement too fast may be a better idea. Make the work last longer… you know what I mean?